The Administration insists that they were also part of the Obama-Castro deal. Of course, since they kept the list secret all this time, we'll never know. So much for accountability and transparency.

One of the prisoners on the list, who was also released prior to December 17th, Marcelino Abreu Bonora, had been out of prison since October 24th. He was then re-arrested on December 26th (after the Obama-Castro deal), brutally beaten (click here to see evidence) and kept in a punishment cell for nearly two weeks before being re-released on January 7th.

Abreu Bonora's case proves how fungible and fickle this deal is.

What's clear is that the Obama Administration didn't want to travel to Havana next week for further talks, while questions lingered about the unknown fate of these 53 prisoners.

Thus, after sitting on their hands for four weeks, they ratcheted the pressure on the Castro regime. Imagine that, pressure works.

Or they simply got creative with the list.

(Additionally, most of the political prisoners were released on the "condition" they don't renew their democracy activism -- or face re-arrest -- while many were at the tail-end of their sentences.)

But as we celebrate the release of these 53 Cuban political prisoners, questions remain about the fate of nearly 50 other known, long-term political prisoners who remain imprisoned.

Not to mention the 8,900 political arrests that took place throughout 2014 -- any of which could easily become a long-term imprisonment. (Part of Castro's revolving-door in using political prisoners to coerce foreign concessions.)

Why did the Obama Administration only settle for the release of 53?

After all, Castro released 3,600 political prisoners to President Jimmy Carter in 1978 and nearly 100 were released pursuant to international pressure following the murder of Cuban political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo in 2010.

Plus now that Obama has negotiated away all of his executive powers for the release of these 53 political prisoners (also proving that leverage works) -- what leverage does he have left for the remaining others?